Joe Lieberman

The result of the strategic risk assessment is that you continue to consider the threat of a bioterrorist attack to be real.

This is an approval rate that exceeds 80 percent.

Senator Lieberman and I continue to work to expand our "See Something, Say Something" law.

I do think both the record and the independent evaluations over the years... says that the Department of Homeland Security has made a difference.

The fact is, we do not know.

I agree with you totally. It has been very productive.

I am heartened that the report that GAO is issuing today concludes that, overall, the Department of Homeland Security has implemented most of its key missions and achieved most of its important goals.

Right now my son and daughter have more broadband capability than my firefighters do while responding to emergencies every day.

We are very appreciative of Senators Lieberman and McCain's leadership and the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in their work to reallocate the D Block for public safety use.

This threat demonstrates yet again that the terrorists have not abandoned their quest to harm our country and our people.

I think, overall, really, our record is remarkable.

Our hope had been--a lot of us on this Committee happened to be on the Armed Services Committee--that we could develop within and for homeland security something like DARPA in the Department of Defense.

Are we safer, or are we just safer from the tactics terrorists have already tried?

And you think that is an achievable goal?

Yes, I would be happy to refile that bill with you because I think it continues to be a problem.

But that leaves 25,625 who have been approved for resettlement but have not yet been resettled in this country.

The operation that killed Osama bin Laden represented the kind of successful collaboration of intelligence and operations that we envisioned.

It is in a spirit of gratitude and confidence that both GAO and this Committee will continue to push you to get as close to 100 percent secure as we possibly can.

We are never going to achieve 100 percent security.

I think that is a very important point for management, and particularly since we are in the middle of it right now as we go through the process of trying to get back toward some kind of fiscal balance in our Federal Government and we are…

We are far safer than we were on September 10, 2001.

This is the key goal of comprehensive cyber security legislation that Chairman Lieberman, Senator Carper, and I have co-authored.

What Congress decides now will dictate the future of our emergency response capabilities.

This is a unique time to solve this problem and create a nationwide public safety wireless broadband network.

I fear that right now the odds are that they can probably avoid detection, whether they are here for evil reasons or, as most of them probably are, just here to work and make a living.